The Serpent
[Every great evil
has a humble beginning]

1st January 1927
Saturday

Startled Ms. Cole noticed that Merope was dead!
She had thought that the woman had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

The fireworks were still being fired into the air.
It oppressed Ms. Cole, as it seemed to her as if they celebrated the death of the young woman. Or the birth of this strange boy.

Where was the father?
Tom Riddle was his name.
Judging by the baby's face he had to be a very handsome man, what could not be said of the mother...
Did the man know that he had a son?
Was Tom perhaps an illegitimate child?!

Startled, Ms. Cole drew a breath.
But then she looked at the hand of Merope Gaunt, where a gold ring sparkled.
No, the child was not illegitimate!
Thank God!

Tom lay asleep in the arms of his dead mother. Somehow  Ms. Cole didn't want to disturb this peaceful image. But she knew that Merope would grow cold with time, and it was not good for the boy, to be lying on a corpse.

She carefully grabbed him, and lifted him whilst pulling the blanket over Merope Gaunt's face.
This woman had sacrificed her last will for the birth of their son.

Ms. Cole closed the door behind her.
She carefully walked into a room where clothes were stacked. From baby size up for almost adult size was there.

She pulled out a gray bodysuit and then went into the large bathroom where she took a diaper, the baby washed, had its diaper changed and dressed.
In spite of all that, Tom continued to sleep calmly.
The water did not interest him.
It was as if he was interested in nothing.
Not the death of his mother, not that he was an orphan, that his destiny was determined now.

The fate of a misunderstood boy who will grow up under a false education, and will be punished for everything.
The fate of hatred!

At the moment, Tom was sleeping calmly in front of her.
He was a small, insignificant, cute boy.
He was Katherine's favorite, as McPeny had handed her Tom as her personal protégé.
Katherine Hollow worked had been working in the Orphanage for about a month now.
She had started a week before Cole.

The boys' bed stood in Katherine's room.
Tom was her little darling.

The only problem was that he almost never cried.
Tom cried only when he was angry because he didn't get something.
Or if he had to wait to be feed for too long, because poor Katherine didn't notice that the boy was hungry!
She also had to cheek if his diaper was dirty every half hour if, because Tom didn't cry!

Sometimes Katherine really worried that there was something wrong with her protege, that his vocal chords didn't work properly.
But then Tom got angry, and she took it all back. Because when Tom screamed, then he screamed very loud!

The baby grew hair in the first week, it grew so amazingly fast that he already had a short head of hair.
Although the hair was thin and still quite short, it made Tom seem even more special.
The shiny black hair.
Mysterious as the boy himself.

The other kids didn't have much interaction with Tom, because he was slept most of the time. And if when they did see him, then most of the children had the tendency to stare. Katherine had already noticed that the baby didn't like it when it was stared at.

Tom began to get restless and his cheeks turned red. Whenever this happened, she left the room and retreated with Tom.

Especially when Valencia was alone with Riddle, she noticed a strange aura around him. She believed she always imagining. Even the watchful eye of the baby, which already scanned the area with his dark eyes.

"Well, Tom?"
Katherine stood beside the little cradle and looked at the child, who was staring at her.
Tom did not laugh.
He never even smiled!

Sometimes he made Katherine anxious.
Tom held out his little hands and looked demanding up at her.
"You're probably hungry, right?" Katherine walked quickly out of the room and then came back with a bottle of warm milk.
Tom drank eagerly.

Nevertheless, Tom drank little.
As Katherine had mentioned it to the doctor he had only said that everything was in perfect order with the little boy.
Tom was just like that.

Katherine took the boy from his cradle and rocked him back and forth slightly.
She would have to leave for the neighboring town because they were holding lesson for supervisors there.
Unfortunately, she couldn't take little Tom with her.

Three days she would have to leave him here alone. With all of the children, which would annoy him to no end, and the warden.
They didn't even know the little boy!
Knew nothing about his habits.

Katherine had asked to be allowed to take Tom with her.
But she couldn't.
She wasn't allowed to.

She looked at the clock and winced.
Six o'clock!
Time for dinner!
She quickly picked Tom, and made her way into the dining room downstairs.

The other children were already seated at the tables and talked in whispers.

Conversation ceased and they looked carefully to Katherine, which in turn smiled at the orphans timidly.
"So, let's pray grace, then we can start with the food."
"God is good, and God is great!"
"Let us thank Him for our food!"
"By His hands we must be fed,
Give us Lord our daily bread- Amen!"
After that was done, the Orphans sat down again and began to eat

Katherine sat down next to Cole on the long bench, cradling Tom in her left arm so that she could eat with the right hand.

Tom looked through the dining room and then fixed his eyes on Cole.
"Well, you've grown quite a lot Tom." Cole stroked the boy over his dark hair.
Every child would have reacted, but not Tom. He just stared back at the woman.

"Katherine, you're reading to us this evening, do aren't you?" A little girl had joined Katherine and Tom and smiled shyly, and hiding her hands behind her back.
"Yes, do you have a particular wish?" Asked Katherine who was now also smiling.
"Sleeping Beauty!" The girl with the blond hair grinned now.
"I'll look for the book, alright? And please tell Daniel, Luke, John and Timothy that they have kitchen duty today."
The girl nodded and then went over to the boys.

Katherine, meanwhile, smeared another bread with butter and ate it.

Then she stood up again.
"So, the kitchen service should go to the kitchen now, and the rest will go to the bathroom, brush their teeth and get dressed for bed. I'll be reading in the common room at seven o'clock. So, hop, hop!"

The children put their plates together and then stood up.
Katherine retreated to her room and searched through her books.

Tom was asleep, and so she put her protege in the cradle and then walked out of the room.